The story of the adventurous lifes of Captain Matthew Flinders and the Botanical Painter Ferdinand Bauer

“Palla describes the departure, voyage and conclusion of a spectacular trip with the seriousness of a captain and the meticulousness of a flower painter.” Martin Oehlen, Kölner Stadtanzeiger

“Palla has succeeded in presenting a wonderful book (...) that offers special insights into the lives of a highly-educated adventurer and into Australia’s colonial history.” H.K., Die Zeit

“ “Der Kapitän und der Künstler” is also a coming-of-age novel about the departure to an unknown world that captivates the reader because he breathes in the atmosphere of this great period of discovery.” Regina Mönch, Die Zeit

In the Footsteps of the Explorers
The Hull has just been made watertight and faced with copper sheets; the 83-man crew is on board along with sugar, biscuits, rum and 60 tons of water, sauerkraut and lemons to prevent scurvy, trinkets for the natives, goats, sheep and pigs in pens in addition to the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, compass, chronometer, nautical charts and sextants. The Investigator sets sail on 25 January 1801. Its destination is a voyage of discovery to the South Seas. Two men are on board who will make history: the most important botanical painter of his day, Ferdinand Bauer, and the extraordinary navigator Matthew Flinders. They became the first to circumnavigate the gigantic land mass in the southern hemisphere, mapped it and gave this continent the name Australia. For a year and a half they explored the coast and gathered numerous previously unknown plants, which Bauer made drawings of. But they would first return to England four years later and on a different ship. Ferdinand Bauer brought back 2000 drawings of plants, animals and landscapes. During the return voyage, however, Capitan Flinders was arrested on Mauritius and imprisoned for six and a half years.
Rudi Palla presents an epic and multifaceted look at the adventurous trip of the Investigator; he takes the reader on a great voyage, returning him to the beginnings of modern Australia.